New DNA test OKd in contract killing

July 12, 2001|By Mitch Martin. Special to the Tribune. Tribune staff reporter Steve Mills contributed to this report.

Prosecutors have two weeks to release for DNA testing the hair samples found in the gloved hand of a murdered Palatine woman, a judge ruled Wednesday.

Attorneys for Death Row inmate Ronald Kliner say the samples could prove he is innocent of the 1988 murder of Dana Rinaldi.

Cook County Circuit Judge Karen Thompson Tobin denied a motion by the state's attorney's office to reconsider her May order. In that ruling she said defense attorneys could conduct independent testing of hair samples using a more advanced form of DNA testing not available in 1996, when Kliner and two other men were convicted.

Tobin said that even if the hair samples do not belong to Kliner, it may not be enough evidence to order a new trial.

"But I don't think it can be ignored, either," Tobin said.

Kliner, in a telephone interview from Death Row at Pontiac Correctional Center, said he was pleased with the ruling.

"I want the testing. I want to go home," he said. "And by the same token, whose hair is it? I'd like to know."

Kliner has lost several appeals since his conviction for first-degree murder.

Two other men were convicted with Kliner. Michael Permanian, a former Chicago firefighter, was sentenced to 75 years in prison for his role. Joseph Rinaldi, the victim's husband, was sentenced to 60 years after pleading guilty to paying Permanian and Kliner to murder his 28-year-old wife. He provided testimony against the two.

Kliner's appeal is based in part on the fact that new DNA technology has become available since the trial. The hair was compared for similarities to Kliner's with a microscope and was found to be dissimilar to the hair of both Kliner and Dana Rinaldi.

Assistant State's Atty. Carmen Aguilar argued that the hair sample was irrelevant. At the trial, prosecutors described the attack on Dana Rinaldi as an execution-style shooting.

"There was no struggle, and therefore the glove has nothing to do with the case," Aguilar said.

Attorneys for Kliner disagreed, citing an Illinois State Police crime lab document that says a struggle may have occurred. In his argument before Tobin, Stone referred to Gov. George Ryan's moratorium on executions after 13 Death Row convictions were overturned.

"This state has a sorry history of death penalty convictions. Where something can be tested, it must be tested," Stone said.

Dana Rinaldi's parents, Don and Betty Schwartz, left the Rolling Meadows courtroom visibly upset. They traveled from Coal Valley, Ill., for the hearing and have delayed moving Texas because of the post-conviction process.

"Ron Kliner has been using the system since the day he was born and will do it until the day he dies. It doesn't seem to matter that he murdered our daughter," Betty Schwartz said.